[Tutor] Question About Function Arguments and Returned Results

[Kent Johnson]

Richard Querin wrote:
> 
> 
> On 4/11/06, *Kent Johnson* <kent37 at tds.net <mailto:kent37 at tds.net>> wrote:
> 
> 
>     There is no need to pass the class object in to the function, you can
>     create it in the function and return it. A class might be nice because
>     it gives names to the various values. A dict can also be used for this.
>     Do what feels right :-)
> 
> 
> To be more specific, I'm going to have probably 6 functions that do 
> similar things. They all take slightly different arguments, they all do 
> slightly different calculations, but the results of all the functions 
> are the same format. So I guess it makes sense to use a class. Now, when 

Yes, that's a good argument for a class.

> you say 'create it in the function', you mean create the class instance 
> inside the function and return that instance? The class itself is 
> defined somewhere else in the module containing the functions so that 
> all the functions have access to it. (Total newb to python and classes 
> so sorry if that's a stupid question).

Right, create the class instance in the function.

class ReturnedValue(object):
   def __init__(self, value):
     self.value = value

def myFunction(x, y, z, w):
   return ReturnedValue(x+y+z+w)

Season to taste ;)
Kent